FRENCH, LATE 19TH CENTURY

The Tableau d'aviation doesn't provide us with a proposed method of propulsion for this flying bird; the model-maker here has chosen a steam engine to drive twin wheels connected to the wings. Chanute, later, suggests an ejection of gases, along the lines of a rocket. Gérard himself, doesn't provide us with an engine in his booklet. He explains in great detail the construction of the wings, from the mechanics of the hinges to the composition of the artificial feathers, but for the driving of the wings he employs only a crank. In terms of locomotion he claims, that mechanics can achieve great deeds, and cites Archimedes 'da mihi punctum, et terram movebo' [give me a lever and I will move the Earth], but goes no further. But, despite his detailed descriptions and diagrams, Gérard tells us that his is 'an imaginary flying machine', and argues that the art of flying by the laws of mechanics is not impossible. It isn't clear if he really intended his machine as pure fiction since he illustrates it towing a Montgolfier balloon in a landscape with the flying machine of Blanchard: both of these were made and flew successfully in 1783.

This highly imaginative design is the sixth listed in the Tableau, it predates the golden age of proto-flying machines by almost a century, and clearly stems from the Enlightenment interest in Newtonian mechanics, especially the physics of flight.